Igor Levit and Sony Music have announced a partnership that will find the pianist curating a new label, No Silence, within the company of which he has been an exclusive artist since his first release in 2012 (collecting, along the way, a couple of Gramophone Awards, including 2016’s Recording of the Year for his Bach, Beethoven, Rzewski variations album).
No Silence takes its name, and impetus, from the antisemitic assaults made on the pianist following a concert in Berlin, entitled ‘Against Silence, Against Anti-Semitism’, which Levit gave as a response to the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. ‘The world can never have enough voices that intervene through art,’ Levit said introducing the label. ‘Voices that stand for beauty, for boundlessness, for liberation, for what it means to be human. No Silence is all of this. And it will become the network that helps artists carry their own work into the world with as much confidence as they possibly can. No Silence is the result of my life so far. And a new beginning. It is my answer to the many crises of our time, of which the loss of humanity, including through technology, is the greatest. No Silence is not simply a label. No Silence is a stance. For beauty, for courage, against conformism, against extremism, for humanity.’
Mark Cavell, President, Sony Music Masterworks commented that ‘Igor Levit, as both a musician and beyond, is a person that continues to seek to have a positive impact on those around him and to always strive for originality, whether of thought or deed. The launch of No Silence is another example of this and the artists who will have the privilege of being on the label will represent this spirit and ethos. Sony Classical and the Masterworks division are extremely proud to partner with Igor on this venture.’ To which, Per Hauber, President, Sony Classical added: ‘The launch of No Silence marks the next milestone in our long-standing, close, and successful partnership with Igor Levit, which has always been defined by deep trust and extraordinary creativity.’
Levit will feature on two of the first three releases (which will made available on October 23). One is a pairing of Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony in Liszt’s piano transcription and Schoenberg’s Ode to Napoleon – for which he’s joined by the Burgtheater actor Dörte Lyssewski, Antonello Manacorda and Kammerakademie Potsdam. Levit will also release Satie’s 16-hour Vexations in a special edition limited to 840 copies, featuring an NFC chip and a signed sheet of music from the recording session. No Silence will also host other artists, and from other musical genres, so Levit’s pupil, fellow pianist Lukas Sternath, will present an album of Liszt and Schubert.
According to the announcement, ‘The future of No Silence extends beyond the scope of a classical music label. It has been deliberately conceived to be open to all genres. The only criteria will be the quality and the distinctiveness of the artists involved.’
A No Silence Foundation is also being planned and will ‘bring together a festival, an academy and a support programme under one umbrella, thereby providing individual support to musicians of all genres, cultures and generations worldwide’.
For more information visit the No Silence website.
